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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773543">Marry Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritewhatIwant/pseuds/WritewhatIwant'>WritewhatIwant</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Growing Pains [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Direction, One Direction (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, American Harry Styles, American Louis Tomlinson, First Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Kid Fic, Liam is Harry and Niall's teacher, Light Angst, M/M, Missing someone who has passed, Niall Horan &amp; Harry Styles Friendship, They are the same age, Young Harry Styles, Young Louis Tomlinson, Young Love, Young Niall Horan, Young Zayn Malik, Zayn Malik &amp; Louis Tomlinson Friendship, harry is chloe, larry stylinson - Freeform, louis is jason, marry me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:48:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,659</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritewhatIwant/pseuds/WritewhatIwant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>All Harry knows right now is that he wants to marry Louis Tomlinson.</p><p>Louis just wants Harry to realize their eight.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Growing Pains [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756972</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>160</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Marry Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Loosely based off an Australian short film. Title is also from said short film.<br/>It’s on YouTube. If you’ve never seen it I definitely recommend, it’s so good and so wholesome.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry didn’t really enjoy being at his Aunt Margaret’s wedding. The only thing he enjoyed was sneaking as much wedding cake as he could without being caught by his dad. Everything else about it sucked. Older family members who didn’t understand boundaries and insisted on pinching and kissing his cheeks. Unwanted questions about how he liked school, and if he liked his teachers. When you’re eight, the capacity to care about things geared more towards adults is limited.</p><p>“Harry, that’s your fifth piece of cake, no more.” His dad spoke, brown eyes of disproval watching the child stuff a chunk of sponge cake in his mouth.</p><p>Swallowing, Harry tried giving his best ‘puppy dog’ face, “Lily gave it to me. She said she couldn’t finish it, and dad, you always said never waste food cause of the less fortunate.”</p><p>With an exasperated sigh, but a huge grin, his father, ruffled his short brown hair, “Yeah, yeah. Just slow down, you don’t want a tummy ache.”</p><p>Shoveling another forkful into his small mouth, Harry gave his father a thumbs up. He didn’t lie, per se, Lily <em>had</em> said she was full, but she had also said that she would save it for later. Harry had just decided for her because cake was something you didn’t save for later, but you ate at that moment. He was doing her a favor.</p><p>Harry also didn’t understand what the fuss about getting married was. Who wants to kiss a girl, yuck. The only person Harry wanted to kiss was his dad, and maybe Louis Tomlinson.</p><p>“Dad, how do you know you wanna get married?”</p><p>“Well, son. You meet someone you truly like, and you get a good feeling inside.”</p><p>“Like you did with Mom?”</p><p>“Yes, sir.”</p><p>“I think I wanna marry Louis.”</p><p>His father’s laughter made Harry scowl, “Well, you have to have his permission, and he has to feel the same way about you.”</p><p>“Okay.” After that information, Harry went back to eating his slice of cake.</p><p>~</p><p>“I don’t know, Haz. Louis’ kind of mean,” Niall, Harry’s best friend since Pre-K, said as he picked through Harry’s lunchbox, “You should marry Mitch.”</p><p>“No.” Harry spoke defiantly, “I only get swirly things in my stomach with Louis, and my dad said you marry <em>that</em> person.”</p><p>“I get swirly feelings for Zayn, should I marry him?”</p><p>“Maybe. I don’t know. But, my dad is never wrong, so, yeah.”</p><p>They were currently waiting for Niall’s mom to pick them up from extended day. Harry never finished all his lunch because he couldn’t stop watching Louis in the cafeteria, but Niall made sure none of his leftovers got wasted.</p><p>“I’m gonna ask him tomorrow at recess.”</p><p>“Am I your best man?” </p><p>“Of course, Niall.”</p><p>~</p><p>“Dad, what’s it called when you ask someone to marry you.”</p><p>The older male was very much surprised by the question, as he put two fluffy pancakes on his son’s plate, “Uhhh. It’s called proposing.”</p><p>Harry doused his flapjacks in syrup, licking the sticky goodness off his fingers, “Okay, and what happens after that?”</p><p>“Well, you usually have a ring, you get on one knee, and hold it out to the person. Some people give a speech, or they just say, ‘I love you’.”</p><p>“What did you do with mom?” </p><p>“I told her that she made me a better person and that I wanted to spend every day waking up to her.”</p><p>“And she liked that?’</p><p>“I would hope so, I mean, she said yes.”</p><p>“Okay, thanks, dad.” The small boy continued eating his breakfast.</p><p>~</p><p>Harry only had five minutes to find what he was looking for before Niall’s mom got here to pick him up. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be in his dad’s room, but he needed his mom’s ring to give to Louis. So he searched everywhere he could think. The brunette was finally triumphant when he found it wrapped in a silky pink cloth in his dad’s nightstand drawer. </p><p>“Harry! Mrs. Horan is here.”</p><p>“Coming!” Stuffing the ring into the pocket of his khakis, Harry rushed out the room and down the hallway.</p><p>“Woah, slow down.” His dad advised, grabbing his son by the shoulders, “Aren’t you forgetting to do something.”</p><p>With an exaggerated groan and hard eye roll, Harry hugged his father while also planting a quick kiss to the man’s whiskery face.</p><p>“Have a good day, bud, I love you.”</p><p>“Love you too, dad.” And Harry rushed out the door, the diamond ring bouncing around in his pocket.</p><p>~</p><p>“Woah! Where did you get that?” Niall asked, breathing heavily, as he placed the jump rope in his hand on the grass.</p><p>Harry was showing off the ring, “It’s my mom’s. I’m gonna give it to Louis.”</p><p>“Are you nervous?”</p><p>Harry searched the semi-crowded playground for the mop of honeyed strands, When Harry's eyes fell on the small boy, the swirly feeling his dad talked about intensified, and his mouth became dry. Louis was kicking a soccer ball with his best friend Zayn, a bright smile on his face, making his ocean eyes crinkle.</p><p>“A little.”</p><p>“I can come with you.”</p><p>“No. I have to do it by myself. I need you to distract Zayn.”</p><p>Niall perked up at that idea, “Okay!”</p><p>Before Harry could say any more, the brunette was running off. Once Zayn was entirely focused on Niall, Harry jogged over to Louis, who was now tossing the soccer ball back and forth between his hands.</p><p>It was when Harry disrupted Louis’ view of the other two males that he peered up at Harry, “Can I help you?” Louis sassed, placing the black and white ball in between his hip and arm.</p><p>“Uhhh.”</p><p>“Today, Styles, I’m busy.”</p><p>“Marry Me.”</p><p>Louis blushed and ducked his head before he glanced back at the timid boy before him. “What?”</p><p>Shaking his head, Harry thought back to what his dad had told him, and quickly fell to one knee, “Uh, sorry. Um. I like the way you play soccer, and when you laugh, it makes my stomach feel weird. So. Marry Me. Please?” Harry then pulled the ring from his pocket, picking the lint off the diamond.</p><p>Louis’ eyes were huge as he stared at the ring, letting the ball drop out of his hold. “Harry, I’m <em>eight</em>.”</p><p>“So? My dad said you marry someone you want to be with forever. I want to spend forever with you.”</p><p>Louis really wished he could stop blushing, “I don’t think your dad meant now.”</p><p>Harry’s knee was starting to hurt, and holding his arms up began to hurt, too, “Just say yes.” He urged, glancing towards the school building when he heard the whistle for ‘line up’.</p><p>Before Louis could say anything Niall and Zayn were running over, and Niall was pulling on one of his best friend’s extended arm, “Come on Haz, Mr. Payne doesn’t like us being late.”</p><p>Harry could only watch Louis run off in the direction of his own class line, the ring still gripped tight in his hand.</p><p>~</p><p>The humiliation was horrible, so Harry faked sick to have his dad come pick him up.</p><p>“What’s wrong, firefly?” his dad’s soothing voice washed over Harry in the back seat, and the tears fell slowly.</p><p>“Stomach hurts, just wanna lay down.”</p><p>Glancing in the rearview mirror to see his son crying made the older brunette’s heart constrict, “Okay bud, I’ll make mom’s world-famous chicken noodle soup.<br/>
<br/>
Harry sniffled and wiped at his eyes, “I’m lying.”</p><p>“I know. Do you want to tell me what’s actually wrong.”</p><p>Leaning forward, Harry placed the ring on the center console. He expected his dad to scold him, but he didn’t.</p><p>“I look at your mom’s ring every day, just to remember her. When I saw it was gone, I knew you had it.” He whispered delicately.</p><p>“I proposed to Louis, but he didn’t want to marry me.” Harry blubbered, falling back against the seat and covering his face with the crook of his arm.</p><p>When they pulled into their driveway, Harry’s dad scooped the heartbroken boy into his arms.</p><p>“How about I make mom’s world-famous chocolate chip cookies instead?” When his son nodded into his shoulder, he wanted to laugh but held himself together, as he deposited the tike on the gray crouch.</p><p>“Okay, well, go get changed, and we can talk.”    </p><p>~</p><p>“Harry, I know that I told you that you should marry someone you like, but Louis’ right—” the look of betrayal in his son’s eyes was comical, but before he got any grumbling he held up his hand, “He’s right about the two of you being too young.”</p><p>Harry pouted, “But he didn’t <em>say</em> anything, dad. He didn’t even say when we're older.” </p><p>Reaching out for another cookie Harry, moaned happily around his mouthful before he became silent, “I miss mom.”</p><p>“I miss her too, bud, and she would be so much better at telling you what you should do.”</p><p>Harry giggled, lightly punching his dad’s shoulder, “Yeah, she would’ve. But you’re pretty great too.”</p><p>“Thanks, Firefly."</p><p>~</p><p>The next day Harry avoided running into Louis as much as he could, and it wasn’t easy when apparently the boy was trying to find him. It was during extended day that his cover was blown. </p><p>“Harry!” </p><p>Turning to find Louis jogging towards him made Harry’s stomach swoop, “Oh no!”</p><p>Before he could make a run for it and hide the sandy-haired boy was standing before him, blue eyes glaring, “Why are avoiding me?”</p><p>“I’m not,” Harry muttered.</p><p>“You are,” Louis whined, stomping his foot, “I don’t like it.”</p><p>“You don’t wanna marry me.”</p><p>“Not right now. I’m only eight Hazza.”</p><p>Harry’s heart fluttered at those words, and at Louis calling him ‘Hazza’.</p><p>“Y-you want to? Like you really want to?”</p><p>Rolling his eyes, Louis quickly kissed the blushing boy’s cheek, “Mhmm. But when I’m older.”</p><p>“Okay, I’ll ask you again, when we’re older.”</p><p>“You better. I won't hunt you down again.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*I have a <a href="https://writewhatiwant22.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> now! Send me messages! However, if it’s anything rude or problematic I will not answer, just an FYI.*</p></blockquote></div></div>
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